Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated. —Martin Luther King Jr.
It was a cloudless afternoon in July 2018 when the first Common Table event was set up on the playing field of Montecito Union School. In the days prior, the indomitable Alison Hardey had hung a somewhat cryptic banner over the front door to Jeannine's on Coast Village Road announcing, "a community gathering — Our Common Table: pot-luck food, live music, one long table, Thursday, July 26th, 5:30-7:30." A small team of volunteers had circulated slightly more descriptive flyers around businesses, schools, and churches of a community still reeling in the aftermath of January's debris flow: "an outdoor gathering of neighbors sharing a meal at one continuous table in the heart of Montecito. No program. No politics. No speeches. Just food (pot-luck), music, and fellowship."
This was in the days before the plague of COVID-19 necessarily kept us apart.